In Britain it was common for weekly comics to publish seasonal specials to tie in with various school holidays, taking advantage of parents who wanted to give their child something that would keep them quiet for a couple of hours. When Polystyle held the Doctor Who comic license they only published a handful of seasonal specials for the show, two Doctor Who Holiday Specials and a Doctor Who Winter Special. From 1980 through to 1996 a variety of seasonal specials were released in connection with Doctor Who Magazine by Marvel UK. The formatting varied widely over the years, with early issues reprinting comic strips from past issues of Doctor Who Weekly, and the exact titles shifted between being Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn Specials, as well as some Anniversary Specials celebrating significant anniversaries of the TV show Doctor Who. The Summer 1984 Special was a merchandise special, and did not include any comic strips nor prose fiction, while the Winter Special 1984 similarly had neither comics nor prose fiction, instead having features recounting the details of past Doctor Who TV stories; as such, neither has been included in this listing. Similarly the Winter 1985 Special, Summer 1986 Special, Winter 1986 Special, Autumn 1987 Special and Winter 1993 Special concentrate on features and lack any fictional content, and are also thus absent from this list. After 1996 and Panini's takeover of Doctor Who Magazine there were no new specials until Doctor Who was relaunched on TV, after which Panini began publishing Doctor Who Magazine Special Editions, most of which did not feature comic material.
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